"We will have a health care system,
not a disease care system."
-- Barack Obama
Dear Secretary of Health & Human Services, Secretary of Education, and Surgeon General,
I am writing to urge the new administration to embrace a national effort to incorporate mind/body techniques into public education from K through university, in age appropriate ways.
WHY?
According to a 20 year study by Kaiser Permenente, 70 to 85% of all illness sending patients to their doctors were caused by stress. Not just aggravated by stress, but CAUSED by stress.
According to Forbes.com, US health-care costs are projected to exceed $4 trillion by 2016.
Conclusion: The United States is now spending at least 70% of our annual health-care spending on illness caused by stress, and that will increase to $3 trillion annually in coming years, if our people are not trained in effective stress management techniques.
STRESS SOLUTIONS
There are several highly effective mind/body stress management systems that have been developed over several hundred, or several thousand years of research, now available in America and worldwide.
These ancient systems include Tai Chi, Qigong (Chi Kung), Yoga, and Transcendental Meditation. Each of these is proven in study after study to dramatically reduce stress damage in practitioners. In fact these are much more effective than standard exercise in deeply cleansing accumulated stress issues in the mind and body, while some also offer the typical benefits of more standard exercises most are familiar with.
It would take many pages to just describe the multi-faceted benefits of Tai Chi alone, so rather than do so, I refer you to a Medical Research site. However, it is worth noting that a University School of Medicine study found that Tai Chi dramatically reduced the symptoms of teenagers diagnosed with ADHD (Attention Deficit and Hyperactivity Disorder). This alone should be cause to enact the below program, for several reasons.
WHY IS STRESS AN INCREASING PROBLEM?
Bill Joy, the Chief Scientist of Sun Microsystems estimates that the speed of change is doubling exponentially every 18 months, and the speed of change will only increase in coming months, years, and decades. Change is stressful, even good change.
The change we have faced is daunting, but nothing compared to the next generation’s challenges of managing the stress of accelerating change.
It is in our interest to provide stress management achieving mind/body tools to adults, but particularly to the new generation(s), because their accumulating unmanaged stress of today, will translate into trillions of dollars of health costs in years to come.
HOW CAN THE UNITED STATES IMPLEMENT SUCH A NATIONAL MOVEMENT TOWARD PROVIDING MIND/BODY TOOLS TO ADULTS AND STUDENTS?
A few years ago the National Council on the Aging assembled leading experts on Tai Chi to create a guide to help local senior centers and professionals initiate an effective Tai Chi program for seniors, using local teachers.
Today, there are a plethora of Tai Chi and Qigong teachers in most cities and towns throughout the United States. However, we need to educate educators about Tai Chi, Qigong, Yoga, and TM, so that educators can begin working with mind/body professionals in their area.
The first step would be to bring together some of the leading Tai Chi, Qigong, Yoga, and Transcendental Meditation experts from the country to a national conference, in order to use, but also expand on the National Council on the Aging's early national Tai Chi guidelines work. I would recommend Dr. Roger Jahnke, Dr. Yang Yang, and Dr. Shin Lin, and who were integral in organizing the National Council on the Aging program at a major university, as potential organizers for this event.
This conference could help map out how these mind/body tools could be taught in age appropriate ways for each grade level. Educators from around the nation who have some knowledge of mind/body tools, or perhaps practice them themselves, could be part of this national conference to work out a national guideline for programs.
Once a national program is designed, then educators locally can be encouraged to reach out to local mind/body experts including Tai Chi, Qigong, Yoga, and TM experts to interview them and begin arranging for potential instructors.
National trainings could then occur, where those chosen local teachers could be brought in to learn how to closely follow the guidelines so that the most effective age appropriate teaching could take place. This doesn’t mean each teacher will be uniform, as there are many different styles of Tai Chi, Qigong, and Yoga, however each can provide very similar benefits if the teacher’s intentions are similar.
So, our goal would not be teaching students the fighting arts of Tai Chi or Qigong for example, but rather focusing on the meditative, stress management, health & healing aspects of Tai Chi and Qigong. Local teachers would be advised to seek out teachers whose focus is on the healing aspects, and the national training would emphasize the stress management, health & healing training.
Thank you for considering this exciting possibility to revolutionize health care in America for both financial and well-being benefits for our nation. Together we can make a reality the visionary goal of our new president:
"We will have a health care system, not a disease care system."
-- Barack Obama
Please reach out to the National Qigong Association (www.NQA.org) and World Tai Chi & Qigong Day (www.WorldTaiChiDay.org), American Qigong Association (www.eastwestqi.com/html/aqa/aqa.html), the Acupuncture Society of America (http://acupuncturesociety.org/), the World Qigong Congress on Qigong/TCM, and the World Qigong Federation (www.eastwestqi.com/wqf/wqf.htm), and Dr. Paul Lam (who has worked with government healthcare in both New Zealand and Australia on Tai Chi projects) to help facilitate such a program, who can also recommend other organizations and national leaders in these fields to help you begin pulling together a national collection of mind/body professionals.
Warmest regards,
[Your Name]
[Your Address]
[Your Phone/Email]
DO NOT MAIL or FAX to below addresses UNTIL JANUARY, 20TH, 2009.
Office of the Surgeon General
5600 Fishers Lane
Room 18-66
Rockville, MD 20857
Telephone: 301-443-4000
Fax: 301-443-3574
Secretary of Health & Human Services
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
200 Independence Avenue, S.W.
Washington, D.C. 20201
Telephone: 202-619-0257
Toll Free: 1-877-696-6775
Secretary of Education
U.S. Department of Education
400 Maryland Avenue, SW
Washington, D.C. 20202
Telephone: 800-872-5327
